The first season of the American television sitcom New Girl premiered on Fox on September 20, 2011, and concluded on May 8, 2012, consisting of 24 episodes.

Developed by Elizabeth Meriwether under the working title Chicks & Dicks, the series revolves around offbeat teacher Jess (Zooey Deschanel) after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three single men, Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris).

The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are around 30 years old, deal with relationships and career choices.

Nick and Schmidt try to convince Jess to retrieve her TV (to replace the one she broke) and personal belongings from the house she had shared with her now ex-partner, which she and her friends do.

Jess is in Nick's room, wearing only a towel, intending to show him her naked body in order to level things.

Schmidt feels deprived due to not having seen Nick's genitals, and repeatedly makes failed attempts to see them.

On another occasion, they again try to have sex in her bedroom, but this fails due to inept attempts at dirty talk by both of them, her complex starfish outfit and her trying to choke him.

Jess puts the gang's living arrangements in jeopardy when she brings the quirky landlord Remy (Jeff Kober) into the apartment to fix things, against Nick's wishes.

On Valentine's Day, Jess recruits Schmidt to go out and help her find a guy with whom to have her first one-night stand.

She subsequently becomes the target of one of the bullies in the same class, Brianna (Joey King), who makes a video mocking Jess and uploads it to the Internet.

Nick injures himself during a game of American football in the park - and refuses to see a doctor because of his lack of medical insurance.

Jess disagrees with a student's father, Russell (Dermot Mulroney), in regard to his daughter Sarah's priorities.

Winston spills the beans about Schmidt and Cece's casual sexual relationship, and the news finally spreads to Jess who does not take it well.

Winston gets his dream job, when he is hired to work for his favorite sports radio host (Phil Hendrie), who turns out to be a short-tempered jerk.

Jess meets Russell's ex-wife Ouli (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and agrees to babysit Sarah (Annalise Basso) at the apartment.

Jess assumes that there is still irritating sexual tension between Russell and his ex-wife Ouli, so she attempts to get the same kind of feelings from him, which does not go as planned.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Zooey Deschanel's offbeat style gets a worthy showcase in New Girl, and while it can get awfully cutesy at times, the show benefits from witty writing and a strong supporting cast.

"[25] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 66 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[26] Fox Home Entertainment released season 1 on DVD in region 1 on October 2, 2012, a week after the second-season premiere.

The three disc set includes deleted & extended scenes, audio commentary for three episodes, a gag reel, three featurettes and alternate jokes.